The danger, if there was any,
existed only during the first day or two. Thanks to you, chiefly and
always, I feel my footing now so firm in this new world, that if you
will go with me to keep the ghosts off, I should really like to visit
the place this afternoon."

Edith demurred at first, but, finding that I was in earnest, consented
to accompany me. The rampart of earth thrown up from the excavation was
visible among the trees from the house, and a few steps brought us to
the spot. All remained as it was at the point when work was interrupted
by the discovery of the tenant of the chamber, save that the door had
been opened and the slab from the roof replaced. Descending the sloping
sides of the excavation, we went in at the door and stood within the
dimly lighted room.

Everything was just as I had beheld it last on that evening one hundred
and thirteen years previous, just before closing my eyes for that long
sleep. I stood for some time silently looking about me. I saw that my
companion was furtively regarding me with an expression of awed and
sympathetic curiosity. I put out my hand to her and she placed hers in
it, the soft fingers responding with a reassuring pressure to my clasp.
Finally she whispered, "Had we not better go out now? You must not try
yourself too far. Oh, how strange it must be to you!"

"On the contrary," I replied, "it does not seem strange; that is the
strangest part of it."

"Not strange?" she echoed.

"Even so," I replied. "The emotions with which you evidently credit me,
and which I anticipated would attend this visit, I simply do not feel.
I realize all that these surroundings suggest, but without the
agitation I expected. You can't be nearly as much surprised at this as
I am myself. Ever since that terrible morning when you came to my help,
I have tried to avoid thinking of my former life, just as I have
avoided coming here, for fear of the agitating effects. I am for all
the world like a man who has permitted an injured limb to lie
motionless under the impression that it is exquisitely sensitive, and
on trying to move it finds that it is paralyzed."

"Do you mean your memory is gone?"

"Not at all. I remember everything connected with my former life, but
with a total lack of keen sensation. I remember it for clearness as if
it had been but a day since then, but my feelings about what I remember
are as faint as if to my consciousness, as well as in fact, a hundred
years had inter